Scattered Remains

Album Notes

Track Listing:

The Arrival

Tell me your stories that need not any words

'Cause I've travelled so far by the light of your tears

And the scent of your breath - they have all led me here

Where darkness and light all melt into one

And the past is a dream burned away by the sun

Please don't leave me this way for its here I belong

To die in your arms

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Voice of Reason

Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?

Its our only chance for forgiveness

And its spiraling down...

When the voice of reason falls on empty ears

Who will lead us in our last and final years

A hopeless chorus of wisdom becomes a siren song

With orchestrated voices sounding, oh so wrong

Can you hear me? Like a child crying in the night

Can you hear me ? Like a soldier left to fight

Can you hear me? When tolerance is drawing so tight

Can you hear me? I am but a whisper...

Deaf, dumb, and blind feeling our way through a maze of halls

And narrowness of mind is the reason for these walls

A cracked and barren landscape has become our common ground

And our only sense of unity is spiraling down

Can you hear me? I don't promise tomorrow

Can you hear me? Only today's sorrow

Can you hear me? We've run out of time to borrow

Can you hear me? I am but a whisper...

Another way to shut them down

To stop the turning wheels of reason

Sightless minds closing out

Oblivious to every word of wisdom

Everyday how it seems those with knowledge

Are few and far between

Mothers cry and parents die

Without ever getting through to them...

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Symptoms of Mankind

To feel the ebbing tides

Of changing humanity - can't hold on for the changes;

When a poisonous heart

Contemplates a world of indifference

And changes...

When the world is running on

The promises we make to our children - our children;

Chances are given

To a chosen few

And the days roll over our children...

What is this I feel in my heart?

What is this in my heart?

Blood for blood constantly

Paints the pictures is galleries.

Time's like a shadow

Reaching toward some unforgivable end.

The sufferance of tomorrow

Is mounting toward some apogee.

And promises are broken, broken once again.

Walking through the streets

I see an ever changing future - Its no future;

Eyes on the television

Seething without humanity - Its no vision.

Is it just a dream...an optimistic dream?

To feel to see, to laugh to cry,

To burning holes into the sky;

To teach to scream, to hide to run,

To turn to dust under the sun;

To fear too much, to hurt, to bleed,

To raining death upon the sea;

To lose the sunlight from above,

To live, to die,

To dream, to love...

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In The Grey

Aging father time goes to sleep again

Questions and replies in the palm of his hand

A million lives can pass in the blink of an eye

No time to say hello and its time to say good-bye

The words rolled by like thunder filling emptiness

Called a message out from me sometimes only I can see

What did I try to say spoke in metaphor

Stranded in the grey, left you wanting more

(In the grey you left me all alone, left me wanting more)

Grandfather clock rings in once again

"Son, time is never free," is what he said to me

Frozen like a statue, a thought raining on the page

Roaming like a schoolboy for half an age

The words shot out like lightning - Stream of consciousness

Thoughts flowed like a river filling emptiness

Like the ending of the day, close an open door

No words on the page, left you wanting more

Wisdom runs like water flows, passed along from hand to hand

Or swept by the ocean tides - taken on the wind like sand

Time holds not the key to reason - stolen like our innocence

Moving in same silent circles driven by the circumstance

Elected to tell a tale - frustration to find the words

Chain reacting messages echoing to still be heard

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Dreams

Stasis of the mind encrypted in a dream

Faults in worlds reside beyond our own belief

Reaching out again to try and get a hold

Of things that aren't real.

Tensions subside with inhibitions freed

Fate is set aside, elusively thoughts breed

Focused ambitions - evasive by the day

All one in the same

But voices won't conceal - Escaping what is real

With lurid themes and twisted schemes, the canvas of our mind

A place to play God for the day - to paint our own sunrise

Voices that chattered in a head by light-

Congregate a chorus, symphonic in the night.

What the voices say - Forgotten by the day

And in the morning

The angels have all fallen

Cast down to Hell as the day begins

And as they fall

The screams of reality call

Waking again to the view of a wall.

Dreams are an alternate means

Of achieving some needs

By the will of the mind

Free of the binds of what’s real

And the pain that we feel

And the burden of time

Life is a thing undefined

Like a dream of a kind

It escapes when we wake

Time not as long as it seems

Not as much as in dreams

Always slipping away...

Nighttime again, dreaming begins

Free of the sins and opinions of man

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Sketches

Yesterday now seems so clear

As its cast under the light

Tomorrow we can't help but fear its sight

See the puppets mock the dance

See the effects of circumstance

See we can't beyond the dark of night

See me through your prism eyes

See right through this frail disguise

See emotions magnified by light

The light of morning magnifies the fright

Morning light

Sketches of today – stone that hasn’t chipped away

Without filling with your heart

The beauty of romance, led blind through a dance

Then the understanding starts

See me from all points of view

I'll do the same when I look at you

Worldwide views will never be so wide

Fools rely on other days

Endless time to make their place

Maybe they should start to look inside

When we see all points of view

Maybe we can start anew

Sketching out what we all have to do

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PICKING THROUGH THE SCATTERED REMAINS - album notes by Stephen Glowacki

The origins of Scattered Remains are woven in a complex tale of love, honor and mystery. It’s secrets lie in a quagmire of time; within multiple layers of pain, joy and shame…

OK, I’m full of it. It’s really quite simple. Since Time and Tide formed from the remains of Season’s End, there had been the desire to archive our older recordings onto CD. After releasing The Water’s Edge in August of 2004 we felt the time was right to focus on that project. The feeling was we didn’t want to simply throw the recordings on CD and leave it at that but rather offer something extra. Fortunately, there were several older tracks we thought would be nice to include that were from the earlier years. We conceived our master plan. We would archive the material in two releases. The first was to focus on the vocal material we had recorded in 1995 and 1996. These were originally available in two limited edition cassette EP’s, Grey Dreams and Reasons. 

In early July of 1995, we were playing the Red Square in Saugus, a predominately metal club. We were still without a vocalist and being the naïve musicians we were, we accepted an offer to play our instrumental prog-rock along side some of Boston’s heaviest. Headlining the night was the ultra-heavy, Cement Shoes, who practiced in the same complex in Everett. All things considered, the night went well with minimal heckling to interrupt the cricket din between songs. There was a standout moment during the evening, however, that would change the band from that point on; we met a vocalist.

Fast forward to September of 1995, and we had begun working with Scott Bedard, who hailed from Rhode Island. We hit the ground running hot on the heals of the release of Circle The Sun, our instrumental prog epic. It was at this time that Symptoms Of Mankind and Voice Of Reason were developed, coming together very easily from some seeds we had. In fact, we had actually played a version of Symptoms at the previously mentioned gig. We also revamped some of the previous vocal tunes we had in the roster when we were called Drama, which had guitarist Chris Devine and, my wife, Renee Glowacki on vocals. Most notable of those was In The Grey, Dreams and Sketches.

Fast forward again, several months. The decision was made to get some material of the vocal tunes together to give people a sense of who we were beyond what was heard on Circle The Sun. The quickest and, let’s face it, cheapest way was to take some demo material we had released on our Voiceless demo and get Scott into the studio to add the vocals. Working through the night at the now defunct Prophet Studio in Stoughton, we teamed up with engineer, and friend of the band, Scott Jordan. Although we were absolutely exhausted, as we all have day jobs, we managed to get the vocal tracks recorded for In The Grey and Dreams. The result was the Grey Dreams EP.

Fast forward, yet again (this is getting fun!) and we arrive sometime in March of 1996. Our friend and engineer, Dave Gardiner, brought us into the studio at U. Lowell to record Voice Of Reason and Symptoms Of Mankind. Arriving early one Saturday morning, with the specific intent of capturing the drums and bass, the sky threatened to dump some snow. It certainly delivered! By sessions end, we had to drive down the only plowed lane on the highway. Throughout March and April we would head up in various teams and track the remaining instruments and vocals. By mid-May, we all met up with Dave for some food and a listen through the songs. And with the last bite and swig of beer,  the Reasons EP was born.

When plans were coalescing for the re-release of these EPs, the first logical step was to get the best sources of master material we had. Although the vocals were never formally recorded for Sketches during that 1995 session, Scott had a version he tracked as a working tape for himself when first joining the band. Ultimately, though, this version wasn’t used due to a lack of audio cohesion. The last piece we needed to record was The Arrival. This was a segue Steve OD wrote in February 1996, for the beginning of Voice Of Reason. When recently archiving our old rehearsal tapes to CD, I came across the original version with OD playing keys and singing his vocal ideas. Priceless!

Because these were recorded in very different ways, Scott, also our resident engineer, worked feverishly to balance out the material sonically, and we are all pleased with the results. The title, Scattered Remains, was chosen as it seemed to appropriately sum up this collection. The artwork was assembled and the final decision was made to release this in an inexpensive CDr format in an effort to “get it out there”.

It seems strange to look past on our history. Although it is easy to take a critical look back, as you may with a first grade art assignment, we’re generally happy with the songs in this collection as they represents a benchmark of this period in our history. We hope you enjoy!

Take care,

Steve Glowacki

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